Innovation Newsletter 1st Edition: “Unmanned AI-Powered Lunch Delivery System that Connects Restaurants to Office Pantries via Hyperloop Tubes”
Beginning the hope of consistently enabling operators to experiment with new things to deliver to my purpose — creation of jobs and purpose for others
Usual Initial “Foreword” (because Shubbankar thinks others care oh so much about what he thinks, lol !!)
I have started a newsletter on LinkedIn to share ideas and my ludicrous optimism as I would like to call it. This is so that established companies as well as aspiring entrepreneurs see opportunities in new ventures — thus creating jobs which will in turn create livelihood — which will in turn enable more education and sanity — and which will finally lead to happier societies. Well, at least in my mind that is.
The net value it creates will be fairly hard to determine any way — but let us not go there and at the least be consistent in sharing it for a week at the minimal. I am so prone to leaving projects in between and just sticking to my comfort zone. This is a challenge — yes — but I want to inspire myself and not anyone else by sticking to the creation of this artefact which I really don’t know will yield an output I desire.
What is the idea already Shubbankar?
Have you been in one of these or some similar situations:
Waiting in line to order food worrying about the preparation you are not being able to get done for the meeting right after lunchtime
Deciding whether to skip the walk to get takeaway lunch even if you will not need to wait in line — because you need to get some office work done or run a personal errand
Force yourself to spend time cooking at home as it gives you more time to rest during lunch rather than constantly being busy through the day
Here I shall try to elaborate on my “ludicrous optimism” over an idea that hopes to do away with some of those concerns. This newsletter is about discussing ideas and innovation without confining to the boundaries of pragmatism — for the most part. From here on — I will use the name Prito for the idea, product and company.
Summary of Idea
Prito is a network of hyperloop tubes connecting restaurants to office pantries in buildings near food courts of malls, delivering food to employees for lunch. It uses AI-powered ordering and delivery systems for employees to place orders through chatbots or voice assistants. Prito aims to reduce food waste and optimize space for restaurants while saving employees time and improving their lunch experience. The target market is office employees in urban areas who face long wait times and limited food options when ordering lunch from restaurants. The service has the potential to disrupt the traditional lunch delivery market by offering a more convenient, efficient, and high-quality solution.
Founder Hypothetical Introduction:
“As we welcome more people to our cities, food waste needs to be limited and space needs to be optimized. Why not start with restaurant businesses that sustain on revenues from nearby offices ordering from them. Let us make it easier for office employees to order lunch while allowing the restaurant to stop worrying about checkout and delivery. To address this, we built Prito.
Prito is a kind of a hyperloop pipe that connects and sends food from restaurants to the connected office pantries at various floors in various buildings located near food courts of malls. This saves lines allowing restaurants to use the space in front in more efficient and creative ways while allowing employees to save time and do more leisure activities and socialisation during lunch.
The service incorporates AI-powered ordering and delivery systems to optimize the efficiency of the food delivery process. This involves using chatbots or voice assistants for employees to place their orders.”
Market Size — Who TF are TAM, SAM, and SOM?
On second thought about this idea, I don’t see a big market if I am considering only offices in buildings close to malls and food courts. However, it is important not to get tunnel visioned by any idea and the best way to do that is to think the use case you have in mind is the only one there can be — EVER !!
Think about operating systems in a computer. Are they only used in big offices where scientists work 40 years hence? No. Size, cost, economics, etc. — everything changes over time if that is where the world converges or isn’t able to find a better idea. Another example — if someone will be able to better figure out buying and selling used electronics, there is of course the possibility that they could repurpose the idea by tweaking it as needed to — say the automotive industry.
Here the idea is essentially last mile delivery. Right now some startups are experimenting with AI robots. I just translated that to “hey, could we just use hyperloop instead”. It raises questions for sure — but if an idea doesn’t raise questions then it has been discarded any way. If we are thinking about building this into existing infrastructure — it is harder than if it were taken up in greenfield projects.
Hypothetical Beginning
Suppose there is a big mall opening somewhere in say Dubai (just top of my head - and no, I wasn’t thinking about belly-dancing; it is cold in Canada so somewhere warmer, lol!!). The founder of Prito pitches this to them and it is not only used for restaurant to office pantry delivery but there are instead stations at various places in the mall where you can pick up your ordered food.
You can’t see restaurants anywhere but there is still vivid marketing about what you might want to eat. There is one giant ghost kitchen in the midst of it all, that is preparing food for proximity residences and offices as well — while also figuring out how to automate a lot of it. And there could be so much more.
If Prito, like the mall — has a grand opening — you can be sure it will be the talk of the town for all greenfield projects and more use cases will be figured out sooner rather than later. The use case I have talked about is just the validation of product market fit.
I hope you liked the idea and found value in this. If you want more elaborate details (Business Model Canvas, Jobs to be Done, etc.) on Prito, here is the link to the edition that talks about it.
